1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material suited to very rapid processing and, more particularly, to a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material which achieves a high sensitivity, a high image quality (graininess and sharpness), and a high color reproduction when color-developed for a short time period by using a color developer having an improved solubility of a silver halide.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, photo studios (called miniature laboratories) in which a small automatic processor is installed behind the counter are built in many places, and so it becomes possible to perform photographic processing near users. Accordingly, demands for rapid processing are more and more increasing. However, the speed of the conventional processing is increased in a desilvering step after a color development step. That is, there has been almost no reduction in the time of the color development step since the color development time was shortened to 3 min 15 sec by C-41 processing introduced by Eastman Kodak Co. in 1972.
Presently, the ratio of the color development time in the whole development time is more and more increasing. Therefore, to achieve a higher processing speed it is essential to develop a technique by which the color development time is largely shortened.
Generally, in the color development step a color developing agent approaches (contacts) the surface of each silver halide grain and forms a latent image in an exposed silver halide grain. In a portion (development start point) where this latent image exists, an oxidation-reduction reaction occurs between the color developing agent and the silver halide. The silver halide is reduced to produce silver, releasing halogen ions into the developer. On the other hand, the color developing agent is oxidized to become semiquinone and then quinonediimine, and this quinonediimine reacts with a color coupler (coupler) to form a dye image.
To shorten the color development step, it is well known to raise development activity by increasing the temperature or pH of a developer or increasing the density of a color developing agent. Unfortunately, neither method can achieve a high enough processing speed. Furthermore, a developer is greatly deteriorated resulting in increase in the density (stain) in an unexposed portion or degradation of the image quality such as the graininess or the color reproduction.
To raise the developing speed of a silver halide, a method of increasing the silver chloride content is also usable. As described previously, a silver halide grain beginning to be developed releases halogen ions into a developer when silver is produced in a latent image portion. A silver halide which releases halogen ions more easily (i.e., which has a higher solubility) has a higher developing speed. Accordingly, the developing speed is increased in the order of silver iodide, silver bromide, and silver chloride. This method of raising the developing speed by increasing the silver chloride content is disclosed in JP-A-3-149546 ("JP-A" means Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application). Unfortunately, the method has the drawback that the sensitivity decreases and the image quality such as the graininess also decreases when the silver chloride content is increased. Therefore, the method has not been applied yet to photographic color negative light-sensitive materials required to have a high sensitivity and a high image quality.